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Explorations / The history of the cell / Part 4 of 7

Oxygen changes everything

How bacteria that split water filled the air with oxygen, rusted the sea's iron, poisoned much of the life of their time and changed the planet for good. 8 scenes.

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Part 1, A planet without life, is open to everyone.

In this part
  1. Debated: from more than 3 billion years ago to just before 2.4Oxygen from water
  2. About 3.0 to 2.5 billion years ago (each claim debated)Whiffs before the rise
  3. About 3.8 to 1.8 billion years ago, most around 2.5Rust in the sea
  4. From about 2.43 billion years ago; for good by about 2.22The Great Oxidation
  5. As oxygen roseA poison
  6. After the Great OxidationA shield of ozone
  7. About 1.8 to 0.8 billion years agoThe boring billion
  8. About 800 to 540 million years ago, and afterThe second rise
Practise this 3.2Photosynthesis: Light ReactionsBiology →3.5The Electron Transport ChainBiology →3.6Fermentation and Anaerobic RespirationBiology →8.6Cycles of MatterBiology →
← Part 3 · Two kinds of simple cell Part 5 · The cell that swallowed a bacterium →
The history of the cell, in order
  1. A planet without life
  2. The first cells· locked
  3. Two kinds of simple cell· locked
  4. Oxygen changes everything
  5. The cell that swallowed a bacterium· locked
  6. Many cells· locked
  7. The tree today· locked
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